This article was first published by the Stonegate Institute.

The beginning of the New Year saw only an increase in the oppression of Christians under Islam, from Nigeria, where an all-out jihad has been declared in an effort to eradicate the Muslim north of all Christians, to Europe, where Muslim converts to Christianity are still hounded and attacked as apostates.  According to the Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, “The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year”; in our life time alone, he predicts “Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.”

An international report found that Muslim nations make up nine out of the top ten countries where Christians face the “most severe” persecution.  In response to these findings, a Vatican spokesman said that “Among the most serious concerns, the increase in Islamic extremism merits special attention.  Persons and organizations dedicated to extremist Islamic ideology perpetrate terrible acts of violence in many places throughout the world: the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria is but one example. Then there is the climate of insecurity that unfortunately in some countries accompanies the so-called “Arab spring”—a climate that drives many Christians to flee and even to emigrate.”

Categorized by theme, January’s batch of Muslim persecution of Christians around the world includes (but is not limited to) the following accounts, listed in alphabetical order by country, not severity of anecdote.

APOSTASY

Iran: A Christian convert who was arrested in her home has been sentenced to two years in prison. Previously she endured five months of uncertainty detained in the notorious Evin prison, where the government hoped she would come to her senses and renounce Christianity. She was convicted of “broad anti-Islamic propaganda, deceiving citizens by formation of what is called a house church, insulting sacred figures and action against national security.” Likewise, Iranian Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani continues to suffer in prison.  Most recently, he rejected an offer to be released if he publicly acknowledged Islam’s prophet Muhammad as “a messenger sent by God,” which would amount to rejecting Christianity, as Muhammad/Koran reject it.

Kenya: Muslim apostates seeking refuge in Kenya are being tracked and attacked by Muslims from their countries of origin: An Ethiopian who, upon converting to Christianity, was shot by his father, kidnapped and almost killed, is now receiving threatening text messages. Likewise, a Ugandan convert to Christianity is in hiding, his movements severely restricted since “the Muslims are looking to kill me. I need protection and help.”

Kuwait: A royal prince who openly declared that he has converted to Christianity, confirmed the reality that he now might be targeted for killing as an apostate.

Norway: While out for a walk, two Iranian converts to Christianity were stabbed with knives by masked men shouting “infidels!” One of the men stabbed had converted in Iran, was threatened there, and immigrated to Norway, thinking he could escape persecution there.

Somalia: A female convert to Christianity was paraded before a cheering crowd and publicly flogged as punishment for embracing a “foreign religion.” Imprisoned since November, “the public whipping was meant to mark her release.” She received 40 lashes as hundreds of Muslim spectators jeered. An eyewitness said: “I saw her faint. I thought she had died, but soon she regained consciousness and her family took her away.” Likewise, “Somali Islamists arrested a Muslim father after two of his children converted to Christianity” and fled.  He is accused of “failing to raise his sons as good Muslims,” because “good Muslims cannot convert to Christianity.”

Zanzibar: After being robbed, a Muslim convert to Christianity called police to his house; they discovered a Bible during their inspection. The course of inquiry immediately changed from searching for the thieves to asking why he “was practicing a forbidden faith.” He was imprisoned for eight months without trial, and, since being released, has been rejected by his family and is now homeless and diseased.

CHURCH ATTACKS

Azerbaijan: A pastor has been threatened with criminal proceedings following a raid on his church during Sunday service. Earlier, he was told that “a criminal case had been launched over religious literature arousing incitement over other faiths,” and was pressured by authorities to leave the area, which he did, traveling great distances each week to lead church services.

Egypt: Before a bishop was going to inaugurate the incomplete Abu Makka church and celebrate the Epiphany mass, a large number of Salafis and Muslim Brotherhood members entered the building, asserting that the church had no license and so no one should pray in it. One Muslim remarked that the building would be suitable for a mosque and a hospital.

Indonesia: A sticker on the back of the car of a member of the beleaguered Yasmin church saying “We need a friendly Islam, not an angry Islam,” distributed by the family of the late Muslim president, prompted another Islamic attack on the church: scores of Muslims “terrorized the congregation and attacked several church members.” Since 2008, the congregation has been forced to hold Sunday services on the sidewalk outside the church and then later in the home of parishioners. Not satisfied, hundreds of Muslims later searched and found the private home where members were congregating and holding service and prevented them from worshiping there as well: “It crosses the line now. The protesters now come to the residential area, which is not a public place.” A new report notes that anti-Christian attacks have nearly doubled in the last year.

Nigeria: Soon after jihadis issued an ultimatum giving Christians three days to evacuate the region or die, armed Muslims stormed a church and “opened fire on worshippers as their eyes were closed in prayer,” killing six, including the pastor’s wife. Then, as friends and relatives gathered to mourn the deaths of those slain, “Allahu Akbar” screaming Muslims appeared and opened fire again, killing another 20 Christians. Several other churches were bombed, and seven more killed.

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Nina Shea, Director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute. She is the co-author (with Paul Marshall) of the new book, Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes are Choking Freedom Worldwide.

FP: Nina Shea, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

Tell us what inspired you to write this book with Paul Marshall.

Shea: We have been tracking and opposing the punishment of religious minorities and Muslim reformers in many Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) countries under apostasy and blasphemy codes for decades.  As religious freedom advocates, we saw a horrific and spreading pattern of human rights violations that is being ignored in US foreign policy and in the media – though particularly egregious individual cases have been sporadically reported without much attention to their overall effect.  This pattern of human rights violations should especially concern us because the practices and policies it evidences undermine the individual freedoms essential to liberal democracy.  Even our national security is compromised since apostasy and blasphemy codes are used by Islamic radicals to crush their opponents and thus pose obstacles to moderation within Islam.  So, it undermines a number of critical American interests.

FP:  What does Silenced do that no book has done before?

Shea: It does two things: It surveys in descriptive and overwhelming detail the limits coercively imposed in the name of Islam on fundamental freedoms of religion and speech in about twenty key OIC countries. It also links this phenomenon to a new trend in the West. The OIC is waging a campaign to have those same limits enforced by the West within its borders and that campaign  is making substantial headway, particularly through self-censorship in establishment organizations and through the adoption of hate speech laws in many countries.

FP: Tell us about the political effects in Muslim societies of blasphemy and apostasy laws.

Shea: One effect is that criticism of anything and anyone claiming Islamic legitimacy is essentially forbidden and, in the more Islamicized societies, such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, northern Nigeria, Pakistan and Afghanistan, those accused of apostasy and blasphemy sins can be punished by death.  Since Islam prescriptions reach into every realm of life—personal dress, social relations, arts and culture, science, politics, etc. — these codes preclude genuine democracy, shut down debate and intellectual inquiry, stifle scientific and economic innovation, and stagnate culture, as the late Indonesian President Wahid wrote in the Foreword to Silenced and as the UN Arab Development Report also documented.  Those who propose to abandon such codes, such as an Afghan journalist, an Iranian ayatollah, and a Pakistani governor and a cabinet minister recently did in their respective countries, are brutally crushed.  Muslim converts to Christianity and members of religions that come after Mohammed, such as the Bahai’s and Amadiyas, are viewed as de facto insulters of Islam and killed or harshly punished and discriminated against. These apostasy and blasphemy codes should be one of the main concerns posed by an Islamist takeover of Egypt, Libya and Tunisia, not the banning of alcohol and movies that our media tends to focus on.

FP: What is happening in terms of the move toward new blasphemy laws in the West — and the trend to stifle truth-telling about Islam in the West?

"Former Muslims Excluded From King Hearings," by Nonie Darwish in FrontPage, March 17 (thanks to Inexion):

I have admiration and respect for Congressman Peter King and I salute him for holding hearings on the “Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community’s Response.” However, as a former Muslim I have not seen anyone testifying on our behalf in the hearings. At least one former Muslims should have been there to tell America of our plight. To tell them why we left Islam right here in America. How we had to choose between Islam and loving America. How radicals and jihadists followed us right here after we immigrated to the US to try to force us back into the same old culture of jihad, hatred and anti-Semitism — that we had escaped from in the first place. How radicals who want to deny us our freedom of religion under the US constitution threaten our lives and civil rights daily.

Most former Muslims in the US started by going to mosques but we soon discovered a political and jihadist agenda. In mosques I was told not to assimilate in America, to have more children and to wear Islamic clothes even though I never wore it in the Middle East before coming to the US. We were encouraged to pray wherever we wanted and do that with assertion even if we have to inconvenience others at airports, baseball games or at work. We soon found out that many mosques in America, as they are in the Middle East, are more of a political organization than a place of worship. We noticed that the more pious Muslims in the mosque were the ones seeking confrontation with American culture, such as getting offended if Americans have dogs or alcohol when riding cabs with Muslim taxi drivers.

Muslims are told openly in mosques that they have a mission in America and that is to make Islam the law of the land. Lying to America and getting offended to cover up the jihadist aspiration was encouraged, and became a perfected art and a religious obligation, which further alienated Muslims from American culture.

Many of us former Muslims have left the religion precisely because of the radicalization we confronted in America. But when we dared to stop going to mosques and left Islam altogether our lives turned into a nightmare. Many former Muslims contact me looking for shelter after their lives have been threatened. Just a couple of days ago I was contacted by a young 21 year old Muslim man telling me he left Islam years ago and has to hide the Bible from his family and friends after his own brother told him he was going to kill him if he does not return to Islam....

Read it all.

In any event, the penalty for apostasy from Islam is death, and has been since Muhammad commanded it. Swedish authorities appear to have picked up on that connection on some level. "Säpo warns Swedish imam over internet threat," from the The Local, March 15 (thanks to Twostellas):

Swedish security service Säpo have expressed concerns about the safety of a Swedish imam who was recently hired by the Church of Sweden to work with teenagers at a Stockholm youth centre.

Imam Othman Al Tawalbeh made headlines in Sweden last week after it was revealed that he had been hired to work with children at Fryshuset, a youth centre in Stockholm run by the Church of Sweden.

The idea behind the appointment was to provide spiritual guidance for the couple of thousand children with a Muslim background who regularly visit the youth centre.

But when foreign ministry officials discovered internet postings which portrayed Al Tawalbeh in a negative light, they reported the postings to the Stockholm police, who handed the matter over to Säpo.

"They said that they are concerned for my welfare and that they are taking the matter seriously," Al Tawalbeh told local newspaper Helsingborgs Dagbladet.

The texts, which are written in Arabic and have found their way into established Arab newspapers, describe Al Tawalbeh as an apostate, someone who has left the true faith.

According to Al Tawalbeh, the author is Mahmoud Aldebe, a prominent Swedish Muslim who caused headlines in 2006 when he was advocating Sharia laws in Sweden.

“He claims that most people think that I poison the true Muslim faith, that I will try to turn Muslim youngsters into Christians and that I advocate women’s rights,” Al Tawalbeh told HD.

Al Tawalbeh said he is used to being criticised but that this time it is more serious.

“Family and friends are worried and have contacted me to find out what is going on,” he said.

The police confirmed that Säpo has been in contact with Al Tawalbeh but told HD that it is too early to say how serious a threat he is facing.

The Church of Sweden has also been criticised for the appointment of Al Tawalbeh.

On Sunday two Swedish female priests wrote an article in the Svenska Dagbladet (SvD) newspaper in which they questioned the appointment of an imam by a foundation run by the Church of Sweden.

Annika Borg and Johanna Andersson argued in the article that a prerequisite of being employed by the Church of Sweden had so far been to share the same core values, whether employed as a priest or as a janitor.

“It is our opinion that the appointment of an imam is unfortunate. It is a step taken too rashly and without proper consideration,” they wrote in SvD.

Despite the possible threat, Al Tawalbeh is eager to be getting on with his new job and his first prayers are scheduled to take place at Fryshuset in Stockholm this coming Friday.

Visit Newsreal

Faiza Ali, of the New York chapter of CAIR, has declared that Muslims can freely leave Islam without anything to worry about. Islam, she says, does not practice coercion and preaches that forced faith is not true belief. She has made this assertion in her criticism of Pamela Geller’s “Leaving Islam” ad campaign on city buses. The campaign is aimed at helping Muslims, like Rifqa Bary, who are fearful of leaving their religion due to Islam’s death penalty for apostasy.

Hmmm, if Faiza is right, I wonder what this poor family’s trouble is all about.

I have an idea, let’s start a fund to send Faiza Ali to Iran, and then to Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Let her stand in the middle of a busy street, in each nation’s capital, and start announcing that she is a Muslim and that she is leaving Islam to become a Christian or, better yet, a Jew. Let her hand out some flyers denouncing Islamic teachings such as: “Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.” (Bukhari 9.84.57).

We’ll pay for her whole trip if she agrees to prove her point with this little fun experiment. And when she makes it back after all the partying, clubbing, rest and relaxation (that she will hopefully be able to fit around her apostasy charade),  we will offer her a cash prize — on top of paying for her trip and the resources needed for the flyers, etc.

Who’s with me?

*

Meanwhile, watch Pamela Geller explain her campaign on Fox and Friends:

"Blasphemy can lead to apostasy," by Dr. Wan Azhar Wan Ahmed for The Star, May 25:

Though Islamic tradition offers no exact equivalent for the term blasphemy, Muslims without proper knowledge who criticise the religion may fall into infidelity or apostasy.

Blasphemy, derived from the Greek term meaning "speaking evil", is contemptuous or irreverent words or speech about God or things regarded as sacred.

Its synonyms, among others, are abuse, desecration, execration, profanation, repudiation, derogation, denunciation, heresy, insult, impiety, sacrilege, scurrility and reviling.

"To blaspheme" is to speak about the Divine or those sacred things impiously, disrespectfully.

In Islam, words that pierce the Almighty God with insults (sabb), insinuate the Prophet Muhammad, or mock any part of the Revelation constitutes religious crimes.

Though Islamic tradition offers no exact equivalent, these situations are analogous or comparable to blasphemy. The Quranic term that comes fairly close to blasphemy is "words of infidelity" (kalimat al-kufr).

Theologically speaking, blasphemy may overlap with or lead to infidelity, i.e. deliberate rejection of God and Revelation.

To a lesser degree, but equally destructive, expressing religious opinions at variance with the standard established Islamic worldview or creed could easily be looked upon as blasphemous.

And this blasphemy may also be defined as any verbal expression that possibly gives grounds for apostasy (riddah). [...]

From the inception of Islam, the religion has been confronted with a lot of opposition. The Prophet Muhammad himself encountered vehement rejection from the Arab people and leaders of Mecca. They disputed, abused, rejected and ridiculed many Quranic teachings brought by him. They not only mocked his claim as the prophet of God but also accused him of many derogatory names and professions.

To make a long story short, people died.

Based on the Noble Quran and Sunnah, the nature and conditions for blasphemy have been elaborated upon by scholars. They describe it as the expression of denigration, contempt or scorn for God, the Prophets, the Quran, the angels, or the traditional religious sciences based on Revelation.

The list goes to those remarks that offend the qualified and true religious scholars. Insults to the authoritative religious scholarship is tantamount to rejection of religious knowledge itself. It implies that the Revelation is untruthful, implicating the Prophet and ultimately Almighty God.

The aforementioned antagonism has been taking place in Islamic history since the time of the Prophet. It is still happening today and will continue to the future.

What is more unfortunate, is that it is done by Muslims themselves, the confused ones. They question the rationale and even validity of certain religious pronouncements, claiming injustices and discrimination, for example, against gender, as well as violation of human rights on the part of Islam. [...]

Blasphemous Muslims must be aware that they may fall into infidelity or apostasy if they choose to remain obstinate after being told the truth.

Sharia Alert from the modern, moderate UAE: "Death Penalty: UAE; Man Who Murdered Lover's Husband Sentenced," from ANSAmed, May 3 (thanks to Insubria):

(ANSAmed) - DUBAI, MAY 3 - The court of first instance of the Sharjah emirate (one of the United Arab Emirates) has sentenced a man to death for killing the his lover's husband, reports the local press. The accused, a 27-year-old Indian, beat to death and then used acid to disfigure his lover's husband, and then left the body in the desert. The 26-year-old woman, also of Indian origin, has been given a life sentence in prison for acting as an accomplice. The number of death sentences issued since the beginning of the year in the United Arab Emirates in now 10. Crimes punishable by death in the UAE include murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy and drug trafficking. However, the sentences are rarely carried out. (ANSAmed).

All it would take would be an Islamic rigorist in power to change that.

Despite the important free speech aspects of this story, and despite the fact that the Hamas-linked Islamic supremacists of CAIR have never before been dealt such a defeat, the mainstream media (including the allegedly conservative media) is -- not surprisingly -- ignoring the story of the restoration of our SIOA bus ads, with the notable exception of CNS News.

Join SIOA here.

We are taking the bus ad campaign nationwide. Help us pay for the ads -- and the lawyers -- by contributing. Use the "Contribute to Jihad Watch" button on the upper right sidebar.

"Activists Claim Free Speech Victory As 'Leaving Islam' Ads Return to Buses," by Patrick Goodenough for CNS News, April 22:

(CNSNews.com) - A public transit authority in Florida has reversed a decision to take down banner advertisements on buses that offer help to Muslims wanting to leave their faith. Activists are hailing the move as a victory for free speech and religious freedom.

Not only will the ten originally planned ads appear on Miami-Dade Transit buses in coming days, but an additional 20 ads will be run at no extra cost.

The decision came after the group initiating the ad campaign threatened a lawsuit, claiming breach of contract and violation of First Amendment rights.

It was confirmed in an agreement signed on Wednesday, according to lawyer David Yerushalmi, whose firm prepared a federal complaint together with the Thomas More Law Center.

The bus company pulled the ads last week less than 48 hours after they had gone up, after a controversial Islamic pressure group complained that they promoted "anti-Islam bigotry."

Produced by an organization called Stop the Islamization of America (SIOA), the ads alluded to the difficulties faced by Muslims wanting to leave Islam.

Under Islamic law, or shari'a, any Muslim who abandons his faith is guilty of apostasy, an offense that leading scholars have taught is punishable by death.

"Fatwa on your head?" the ads' tagline read. "Is your community or family threatening you? Leaving Islam? Got questions? Get answers!" The ads also give the URL of a Web site offering resources for people who have abandoned Islam or are thinking about doing so.

Their appearance triggered protests from the South Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). Its director, Muhammed Malik, said the issue of apostasy was being used as "a smoke-screen to promote anti-Islam bigotry and attempt to marginalize American Muslims."

Following the CAIR complaints, a Miami-Dade Transit spokeswoman told Florida media that the authority decided to remove the ads after reviewing them and determining that they might be offensive. An outside company, CBS Outdoor, had sold the ad space and the ads had not been routinely reviewed at the outset.

Yerushalmi said he had been ready to go to federal court this week to apply for a temporary restraining order, but that during a teleconference with the Miami-Dade County Attorney's office, "the county attorneys conceded the ads should not have been pulled."

The lawyer then negotiated a retraction of the earlier contract termination with CBS Outdoor. "The ads are expected to go back up by early next week."

Miami-Dade Transit did not respond to queries Wednesday.

The driving forces behind SIOA and a related group, the Freedom Defense Initiative, are Pamela Geller of the Atlas Shrugs Web site, and Jihad Watch director and author Robert Spencer.

When they launched the campaign last week, Geller and Spencer said it marked "the first time anyone has offered public help to those who are threatened under Islam's apostasy law. In the Land of the Free, government and law enforcement should be on this. But they aren't. So we are. It is time for free citizens to stand for freedom - or lose it."

SIOA has cited cases like that of Rifqa Bary, the teenage girl of Sri Lankan origin who converted to Christianity from Islam and then fled from her Ohio home to Florida last year, claiming in an affidavit that her father had threatened to kill her because of her conversion. [...]

CAIR did not respond Wednesday to queries sent to its South Florida chapter office and to Malik's personal email address. [...]

Heh.

In one Hadith (the Sahih al-Bukhari) Mohammed commands, "Any [Muslim] person who has changed his religion, kill him," and in another (Imam Malik's Muwatta) Mohammed specifies that the form of execution should be beheading.

CAIR's stated position on the subject, outlined in a statement last year, is that "faith imposed by force is not true belief, but coercion."

The statement included several Koranic references to back up that assertion, including the "no compulsion in religion" one, but said nothing about the various Hadith relating to death for apostasy.

Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Mauritania are some of the countries where people have been formally accused or found guilty of apostasy.

Apostasy laws typically give an accused person three days to reflect before being condemned. "If he does not repent within this time limit, he is to be condemned to death as an apostate and his property will be confiscated by the Treasury," states Mauritania's criminal code.

In Afghanistan, a Christian convert named Abdul Rahman was sentenced to death in 2006 for apostasy, but after the U.S. and other Western countries with military forces deployed there put pressure on the Karzai administration, he was freed and allowed to seek asylum abroad.

Even in countries where conversions are not punishable by law, apostates often face hostility or violence at the hands of relatives, communities or Islamist radicals. The Barnabas Fund, a British-based charity working among Christian minorities in the Islamic world, says Muslims who change religions often face "a lifetime of fear."

The other day I received an e-mail from a stranger posing two questions that have been on my mind for some time; thus his message seemed uncannily personal.

“I was curious,” the writer said, “if you have ever looked at your political ‘apostasy’ and wondered whether, if circumstances had been different — if you had not been involved with the Panthers or if your friend had not been murdered by them — you would still be a Marxist today. Was your apostasy a result of an inexorable intellectual development, or were you forced into your second thoughts?”

In one form or another, this is a question just about everyone gets around to asking. If circumstances had been different, would my life have turned out differently? It is a question as old as philosophy — the puzzle of determinism and free will.

Not everyone, of course, experiences such a dramatic turning point in their lives as I did 25 years ago when the Black Panthers murdered Betty Van Patter. But we all can identify choices or decisions that changed our lives, moments when we suddenly set out on a new course. Each time these kinds of changes occur, they raise the question: Are they essential to our being, or only secondary to who and what we are?

In my case, I simply don’t know whether the intensity of my ideological transformation would have been the same had it not been provoked by an act of criminal brutality committed by my political allies and friends.

But I am confident that the change would have come, in any case. I have many friends and acquaintances who had similar “second thoughts,” in which they found themselves rejecting the ideas and understandings that motivated them when they were young, and I have no reason to suppose it would have been different for me.

–  Don’t Look Back 

–

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Rifqa Bary is the 17-year-old girl who converted from Islam to Christianity and fled from her family in fear for her life. For over nine months now, the Islamic machine has been trying to make an example of her, as a warning that even in the U.S., those who try to leave Islam will fail.

Rifqa's entire legal strategy, meanwhile, has hinged on ignoring the Islamic aspects of the case, although Islam's death penalty for apostasy is the only thing that makes sense of why she is in danger.

Instead, they're trying to obtain for her Special Immigration Juvenile Status (SIJS). And in this, yet again, her parents' aggressive and manipulative attorney, Omar Tarazi, has outfoxed them.

This was her lawyers' objective, the end run: If they could keep Rifqa out of her dangerous home environment and secure immigration status, then it didn't matter how they did it, as long as the goal was achieved.

What her legal team did not understand was the nature of the threat and the enemy Rifqa faced. They were playing by a set of rules that were inapplicable to the challenge they faced. By pretending that Shariah was not the elephant in the room, they were out-strategized....

I think that's what CAIR and the Barys want: for the whole family to go back to Sri Lanka, which was the plan after members of the Noor mosque spied on Rifqa and told her parents of the conversion. The bags were packed.

And in Sri Lanka, as Rifqa herself has said, she could be killed or institutionalized with no unwelcome scrutiny interfering in the application of Islamic law.

Rifqa is still not eligible for Special Immigration Juvenile Status, and the Rifqa's legal strategy has been reactive, not pro-active. They are being kept busy responding to motions Tarazi, who was chosen for the Barys by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group under suspicion of funding the terrorist group Hamas.

The worst example of how Tarazi fooled Rifqa's lawyers was that he compelled them to have Rifqa plead guilty to "unruliness" to secure dependency, and then reneged on his part of the deal once the guilty plea had been entered.

The guilty plea continues to have negative ramifications for those who love Rifqa and helped her. Using the "unruly" plea as a pretext, criminal investigations are proceeding and charges are pending against Brian Williams and Blake and Beverly Lorenz, who helped Rifqa when she fled from her home.

Why hasn't Rifqa's legal team demanded an investigation by child services into the abuse and death threats in Rifqa's home? The eligibility requirements for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status demand it. The immigrant minor must not be able to reunite with her parents "due to abuse, neglect, abandonment, or a similar basis found under state law."

All Rifqa's lawyers have is a guilty plea to unruliness from Rifqa, and no establishment of abuse at all. In fact, in the stipulation to dependency, the lawyers on both sides were at pains to put on the record before the court the fact that the stipulation was not based upon abuse or neglect.

To support Rifqa's abuse claim they'd have to get into Islamic apostasy law, and they don't want to do that.

Read it all.

And Pamela has more, including a statement from Rifqa's friend Jamal Jivanjee, here.

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Nonie Darwish, the co-founder of FormerMuslimsUnited.com and the author of Cruel and Usual Punishment.

FP: Nonie Darwish, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

I would like to talk to you today a bit about the Muslim voices for change that are increasing through the Islamic world. There is an unprecedented defiance taking place behind the Islamic Curtain.

Can you tell us what is transpiring?

Darwish: As you know, Jamie, I lived for 30 years in the cocoon of the Muslim world and I can see a huge change going on inside the Muslim world. More and more people are challenging the status quo.

After 9/11 and with constant recurring explosive Islamic terrorism, it has become harder for the Muslim establishment to keep the lid on Muslims questioning their system, religion and holy wars. Criticism of Islam is coming at them from every direction, putting Muslim clerics in a quagmire unable to honestly answer questions. Muslim scholars were never trained to answer questions critical of Islam or engage in hostile debate. But now, suddenly, they are challenged to the core like never before, not by Western critics, but by brave hosts of Arabic language shows from unidentified locations in the West and hosted by former Muslims and/or Egyptian Christian Copts.

Father Zakareya Botros rocks the Arab world with his show “Howard Al Hak” or “Honest Debate” when callers from various parts of the Muslim world call in renouncing Islam. Former Muslim turned Christian, Rachid Hmami, originally from Morocco, has a popular show “Fil Samim”, or “from the core”. Hmami, who is the son of a Muslim cleric, is eloquent, respectful with a calm and peaceful demeanor — a characteristic in sharp contrast to the angry loud and cursing image of many Muslim clerics.

The Muslim leadership is suddenly under a lot of pressure to answer taboo questions rarely ever asked before; taboo topics such as questioning the validity of the Qur’an, the life and marriage of Mohammad, his violent wars and assassinations, the fact that there is no minimum age for marriage of women in Islam and about ridiculous Fatwas regarding breast feeding of adult males by Muslim women and Muhammad’s urine as a cure. Muslim callers to these Arabic shows have proved beyond doubt how many Muslims have no clue as to what is written in their scriptures and religious laws.

Many Muslims are demanding answers from their religious leaders and for them to vigorously defend such criticism of Islam. However, not one Muslim cleric has answered the questions on people’s minds. Their response is more yelling, threatening, hate speech, paranoid accusations and propaganda of misinformation. This led Hmami and Father Zakaria, for instance, to personally challenge Muslim leaders to a debate. A well-known Muslim cleric was exposed to have lied when he accepted the challenge to debate on TV, but privately, on recorded phone call with Hmami, the Muslim cleric was evasive, lied and declined the invitation to the debate, giving ridiculous excuses.

FP: Where do we stand with the apostate issue?

Darwish: For the first time in Egyptian Islamic history, a number of apostates have come out publicly demanding their right choose to leave Islam and practice Christianity. Their demand was legally rejected and fatwas of death issued against them. Maher al-Gohari, Mohammed Higazi, and prominent feminist attorney Naglaa Al Imam, are among a few courageous ones. From the number of callers to the shows who claim they left Islam, I believe the number of apostates inside the Muslim world to be significant but are mostly silent. The main power of Islam and its clerics lie in the Muslim death sentence for apostasy and blasphemy. A number of apostates living in the West have greatly impacted the Muslim world. Among those are Wafa Sultan, the Italian/Egyptian Magdi Allam who was baptized by the Pope, Ibn Warraq and myself, and many others such as several former graduates of the Islamic Al Azhar University living today in the West.

I have received a recently released Arabic poem claimed to have been written by Taha Hussein, the prominent Egyptian father of Arabic literature 1889-1973. The highly intellectual and well written poem is extremely critical of the God of Islam and admits the apostasy of its writer. Hussein was once prosecuted with the accusation of insulting Islam. Challenges to Islam are coming from intellectuals, artists and journalists across the Muslim world, such as the Egyptian Sayed El Qemany; they must walk a fine line lest they get accused of apostasy or blasphemy.

While this trend challenging Islam is significant when compared to recent history, we must caution from being over optimistic for a reformation in Islam since the new trend is still in its infancy and has not yet established itself legitimately to become part of the mainstream. The reaction to such a challenge is intense and often violently lashing out in the form of acts of threat and terror. Some Muslim people of influence have admitted recently that terrorism is a Muslim commandment. On January of 2006, a member of Egyptian Parliament, “Ragab Hilal Hamida’, said from the floor of the Egyptian Parliament that “the Quran directly commands us to commit terrorism, so why are we afraid of it?”

What is without denial is that Islam today is in turmoil and going through growing pains, tearing Muslim society apart. My fear is that while Islam is in the process of finding itself it might bring down others with it.

FP: While you caution over-optimism, what effects do you think this defiance might have? What are the possibilities?

Darwish: Such defiance to bring about much needed change in the Muslim world will, hopefully, bring its intended goals of respect for human rights, women’s rights, democracy and the end of Islamic violent jihad and the hate-filled educational system against non-Muslims. But before we celebrate the beginning of the trend towards Islamic reformation, we must realize how huge the magnitude of such change will be. It will take decades if not more. The outcome is not guaranteed, and it will come at a heavy price in violence, civil unrest, oil embargoes, and sadly with lots of innocent victims both inside the Muslim world and also in the West. And I mean this in the context of terror attacks.

Some view Islamic terrorism as a sign of power, which in many aspects it is, but it is also a sign of a desperate culture trying to shut off the shining light of freedom in the world surrounding it.

The reason for such a grim process is because 1.2 billion Muslims  around the world are starting to wake up bit by bit to realize that they have been spoonfed total lies and fabrications for centuries about their own religion as well as the world outside of Islam. The greatest taqiyya (holy lie), and perhaps one of the greatest in history, is the one perpetrated on the average Muslim man and woman by their religious leaders, the men of Allah they are supposed to trust. Such an awakening will result in gradual but steady violence – which is already starting to bubble up in many Muslim countries.

The nations affected by the Islamic crisis will not only be Muslim, but also Western nations which took huge numbers of Muslim immigrants. Israel and the West, as usual, will be blamed for Muslim internal civil unrest and thus will suffer from terror attempts and shooting at them as a means to end Muslim internal civil unrest.  Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the two nations that produced the 9/11 terrorist, are already under internal threat and violence coming from terror groups such as ‘Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’ and ‘the Muslim Brotherhood’ who cannot wait to destroy the regimes in both nations.

I am worried about what will happen in the coming decades to the world while Islam is undergoing possible reform and change. The Muslim world right now is a disaster waiting to happen. They are living above a volcano that can explode any time. The status quo in Muslim countries cannot continue and Muslims are discovering they have been in massive tyranny and terror for 1400 years. Muslims are leaving Islam in large numbers and more will leave if the apostasy death penalty is lifted. Tyranny cannot last for ever, not even under Sharia Law.

Where this trend will take Islam is unpredictable, but change is certain. It can take the Muslim world to a great reformation but it can also take them and the rest of the world to a horrible confrontation and a period of decline and downfall. Islam, like communism, will probably never disappear, but eventually if Islam does not reform, it will be discredited as a religion.

FP: What can Westerners do to help inflict cracks into the Islamic Curtain?

Darwish: The first thing is get out of the way when Islam is about to explode, and it will. Muslim countries need not be rescued and they need to fall on their own and grow on their own. Do not try to help or hurt if a civil war happens in Saudi Arabia or Egypt. If we cannot have oil for a while, then let it be. When we try to help a Muslim country from self -destruction, due to Muslim on Muslim atrocities, like what happened to Kuwait by Iraq, we take away their ability to recognize their internal issues, see their true enemies and why they are in trouble.

The West must realize that it is not doing itself or the Muslim world a favor by political correctness — which actually has a negative effect on Muslims trying to reform their system. Western PC is telling them we just love you the way you are, terrorism, hate speech, good and bad, we still love you. The West must demand reciprocity and equal treatment from Muslim countries. If they build mosques in the US then we must have the right to build a Church in Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries. By accepting a one way cultural impact from Islam, we are welcoming a disaster waiting to happen.

Western governments so far have been ignoring Muslim critics and reformers who fully understand the problem and have been only strictly dealing with Muslim groups, such as CAIR and others whose goals are in fact as Islamist as the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. It is time for Western officials to give respect to Muslim critics, reformists and former Muslims.

And finally, Western victims of Islamic terror need to file a huge class action suit against Saudi Arabia and all countries that produced terrorists who are the product of their hateful jihadist educational system. They cannot claim innocence.

FP: What are your primary concerns today? What is on your mind and what worries you the most in terms of the topic we are discussing here today?

Darwish: My fear concerns the safety and security of America and Western democracy. This threat is real and we must never underestimate it. While Muslim/Arab countries are undergoing major change, internal civil unrest and violence, there will be horrific acts of violence against Israel and Western nations in the near future. Remember in the Gulf war when Saddam was desperate, he started shooting at Israel. The same thing happened in Gaza when Hamas and Fatah were fighting; they also started shooting at Israel. When Israel shoots back for self protection, that is when Muslims end their massacres between themselves

I am also concerned about the many innocent beautiful people of the Middle East — who are after all my people. The violence has already started there and I fear for the Christian minorities as well.

FP: Nonie Darwish, thank you for joining us. Thank you for being such a courageous and noble freedom fighter.

Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Pamela Geller, founder, editor and publisher of the popular and award-winning weblog AtlasShrugs.com. She has won acclaim for her interviews with internationally renowned figures, including John Bolton, Geert Wilders, Bat Ye’or, Natan Sharansky, and many others, and has broken numerous important stories — notably the questionable sources of some of the financing of the Obama campaign.. Her op-eds have been published in The Washington Times, The American Thinker, Israel National News, Frontpage Magazine, World Net Daily, and New Media Journal, among other publications. She is the co-author (with Robert Spencer) of the soon to be released, The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America (forward by Ambassador John Bolton).

FP: Pamela Geller, welcome to Frontpage Interview.

I would like to talk to you today about Facebook’s Fatwa’s on Rifqa.

What exactly is going on?

Geller: Thank you Jamie.

Facebook is full of death threats and other vicious material about Rifqa Bary, the teenage convert from Islam to Christianity who is in a fight for her life in juvenile court on Franklin County, Ohio. She left Islam and converted to Christianity, and she has been persecuted for it ever since.

Rifqa’s life is now on the line. Back in September I reported at my website AtlasShrugs.com on the first Rifqa Bary Facebook Fatwa: a Facebook group that said openly, “we need to kill her,” and was full of Muslim members. Now add this to the list of fatwas and death threats against Rifqa Bary: a Facebook group, again with numerous Muslim members, proclaiming, “Don’t save Rifqa Bary, let them kill her.” Although I have called attention to that group, it is still on Facebook. It has 64 members, all of them apparently Muslims. Not a Moishe in the mix.

Imagine, these are just the ones we catch. Only G-d knows how many hit squads are out for this young woman.

Another Facebook group screams, “F*** RIFQA BARY !!! SHAME FOR ISLAM !!!!” It has 57 members – once again, all Muslims. This one openly admits what CAIR and other front groups in America lie about: “In Islam, yes, apostasy is the death penalty.”

And yet another Rifqa-hating Facebook group asks if she is the Dajjal, an evil figure from Islamic eschatology. Robert Spencer says: “The Dajjal will at the end of days lead people astray. Muhammad said: ‘The Dajjal is one-eyed and will bring with him what will resemble Hell and Paradise, and what he will call Paradise will be actually Hell; so I warn you (against him) as Noah warned his nation against him.’” The Facebook group says: “Scriptures reveal Dajjal will have one eye. Rifqa Bary has one eye. You be the judge.” It also quotes a dhimmi Christian, Rev. Tim Ahrens, praising the extremist Noor mosque that Rifqa’s parents attend and saying, “I have only ever found graciousness and kindness in my dealings with Muslims.”

They are screaming it on social networks, but in the case of Rifqa Bary, justice is not blind, it is deaf and dumb. Is Judge Elizabeth Gill and Rifqa’s crack legal defense team going to continue to ignore the death penalty for apostasy under Sharia law for those who leave Islam? Are the CAIR militants going to act like thugs, and intimidate and pervert the American justice system to enforce Islamic law?

FP: What are other developments since the Rifqa Bary case returned to Ohio?

Geller: There have been many, especially in recent weeks. Muslim Brotherhood/Hamas front CAIR has found out where Rifqa is living. Omar Tarazi knows the address of Rifqa Bary’s foster home. How? What Islamist enemy leaked her location to CAIR? She must be moved at once. Who put Rifqa’s life at risk? I would demand a change of venue. The courtroom has been infiltrated, her best interests subverted.

Rifqa’s foster parents have her on lockdown. Rifqa’s limited phone and computer were completely cut off after the hearing of the 22nd. Complete crackdown. All communication to Rifqa was cut off. It was decided that a counselor would determine if she could have contact with friends. The counselor said she could, but nothing has happened. She is literally being treated like a prisoner.

FP: Sounds like Sharia Law on America soil.

Geller: That is what is happening Jamie. This is the punishment for female apostasy. House arrest until the apostate recants. This isolation is a form of psychological torture. I thought Obama said no torture for jihadists. So why is a girl in America, guilty only of freedom of religion, allowed to be psychologically tortured? This is mental abuse, and the fact that the parents are behind it with a terror organization as their hatchet man speaks volumes as to what would happen to Rifqa if they ever dared to send her home.

Apparently Rifqa met with and was begging the counselor assigned to her for some contact, any contact, with the people she loves. She told the counselor she was completely isolated. Alone and sad. The counselor agreed and said OK. But nothing has been done. Rifqa’s John Stemberger-appointed lawyers have agreed to this house arrest. She is surrounded on all sides.

Her legal team, still led by her former Florida attorney John Stemberger, is fiercely raising money — for what? I thought his work was pro bono. And he bungled the case so badly in Florida that I cannot imagine why he is still driving the “strategy”.

FP: Why has Rifqa’s legal team agreed to or imposed this crackdown in concert with the foster family?

Geller: I don’t know. Perhaps because those who loved Rifqa would advise her to get new legal help that specialized in apostasy cases. But no one can get to her. A new lawyer could ask for a continuance to prepare for the brutal trial against the Islamic machine. She needs a continuance.

She has no one now. No one. It has never been this bad for her. And her legal team has not been preparing for trial. They seem to think they can still make a deal with CAIR (Muslim Brotherhood). The Barys will never make a deal. This is jihad. A deal is never going to happen. Rifqa’s lawyers have barely begun taking depositions for Rifqa. They haven’t interviewed any of Rifqa’s witnesses in the trial to prove dependency. And Rifqa’s parents are fighting dependency with every dishonest crooked tool in the Islamist toolbox (taqiya, lies, deception). But the Stemberger-led legal team is still in the earliest stages of preparations.

FP: What is it exactly that Rifqa’s parents are up to?

Geller: Rifqa’s parents are fighting dependency by saying there was no conflict in the home. They are saying there is no conflict for apostasy in Islam. Every teaching from the Quran (Allah’s word) says it is the most egregious crime, punishable by death. The devout Barys said “she could practice her Christianity in the home”. Nothing could be farther removed from objective reality. She lived in fear and in secret for years. The beatings, the death threats can all be substantiated by her friends. The nature of the conflict is Islam, yet Rifqa’s lawyers will not present any religious evidence. Ex-Muslims such as Wafa Sultan, Nonie Darwish, and the world’s leading scholar on Islam, Ibn Warraq, would testify. None are being called.

The parents and their CAIR-appointed attorney Omar Tarazi are determining who can speak to Rifqa. They are the only ones who can determine who is on the non-existent visitors list.  And now, still, there is no visitors list. The two closest friends of Rifqa are no longer able to contact her.

In the courtroom on December 22nd, the magistrate told the attorneys she doesn’t want any surprises before they go into any of the hearings, so they meet in chambers first. She wants to know everything that is going to be filed. Every motion, any move…and no Islam. You can not introduce Islam. And yet Islam has been introduced already. Just look at the Facebook threats.

I have said from the very first that Rifqa Bary is the highest value target in America. Apostasy is the most egregious crime against Islam. Her crime is not just against the family. It is against Islam.

I know Ohio law enforcement and Florida law enforcement found no threat to Rifqa, but perhaps they can put down the kool aid for five minutes and do their jobs.

With sites on Facebook threatening Rifqa with death, everyone should stop the PC Religion-Of-Peace nonsense and get serious. Is law enforcement going to stop playing games and protect this young girl or what? Salman Rushdie did far less.

FP: What can the average citizen do to help Rifqa? And who can we contact on Facebook to ask why it allows jihad and death threats on its site?

Geller: Jamie, the average citizen can write to Ohio authorities, including the governor, to protest how they are allowing Rifqa to be railroaded.

Franklin County children services can be reached here.

Eric Fenner’s fax number is 614-275-2755 and his e-mail address is edfenner@fccs.co.franklin.oh.us

The Ohio governor’s office can be reached here.

Also, Governor Strickland is up for re-election. Here is John Kasich’s contact information.

Be vigilant. And pray for her.

As for Facebook, they seem deliberately to make it difficult to contact them. There are contact forms within Facebook itself for members, but it is not easy to know which is the right one that will get to the right person. Readers can and should try abuse@facebook.com, but there is no assurance that anyone with any authority in Facebook will see the message.

FP: Pamela Geller, thank you for joining Frontpage Interview.

For Rifqa's foes, her case is all about Islamic apostasy. For her parents' CAIR-affiliated lawyer, it is all about Islamic apostasy. The only ones who are not playing on this field are her clueless defense team -- and of course when you're not even playing the game, you have no chance of winning.

Pamela has the details. See also here.

Dear Ralph,

It has been over a decade since this silence as durable as an iron curtain descended between us. In these circumstances, I have had to depend on others to learn how you regard me these days: how, at a recent social gathering, you referred to me as “one of the two tragedies of the New Left” (the other being a former Brecht scholar who now publishes guides to the nude beaches of America); how my apostasy has inflicted an emotional wound, as though in changing my political views and leaving the Left I had personally betrayed you.

I understand this. How could it be otherwise for people like us, for whom politics (despite our claim to be social realists) was less a matter of practical decisions than moral choices? We were partisans of a cause that confirmed our humanity, even as it denied humanity to those who opposed us. To leave such ranks was not a simple matter, like abandoning a misconception or admitting a mistake. It was more like accusing one’s comrades. Like condemning a life.

Our choice of politics was never a matter of partial commitments. To choose the Left was to define a way of being in the world. (For us, the personal was always political). It was choosing a future in which human beings would finally live as they were meant to live: no longer self-alienated and divided, but equal, harmonious and whole….

What persuaded us to believe that socialism, having begun everywhere so badly, should possess the power to reform itself into something better? To be something other than it has been? To pass through the inferno of its Stalinist tragedies to become the paradiso of our imaginations?

– The Politics of Bad Faith

If you have a favorite Horowitz quote you want to highlight for others then please email it to DavidSwindle {@} Gmail.com. Please include:

1. “Horowitz Quote of the Day” in subject line.
2. A link to where the quote is from. (No need to include this if it’s from a book.)
3. Any remarks you’d like published explaining what value you take from it.
4. Your preferred name and a link to your blog or homepage (if you have one.)

Related posts:

1. From the Pen of David Horowitz: October 28, 2009
2. From the Pen of David Horowitz: December 6, 2009
3. From the Pen of David Horowitz: December 4, 2009

But is anyone listening? Pamela Geller reviews Wafa Sultan's superb and essential new book for FrontPage:

Wafa Sultan's seminal moment was when she took on an Islamic cleric on Al-Jazeera. The clip went viral on Youtube, and it really was a defining moment in the clash of civilizations. Here was a woman, basically considered "property" in the Muslim world and expected to do what she was told, turning around after she had been interrupted numerous times, and saying in effect, "Quiet, it's my turn."

Now comes her new book, A God Who Hates, which will undoubtedly prove to be a key resource in the resistance to jihad and Islamization. In it, the brilliant psychiatrist from Syria, now an American citizen, tells her own story.

It is the story of a Muslim woman who grew up in a country where she was indoctrinated in Islamic ideology. So her perspective is very important in terms of establishing the credibility of scholars like Robert Spencer and Dr. Andrew Bostom. But what makes this book great, apart from its breathtaking honesty and truth and the clarity and urgency of its warning, is that it is also a beautiful love letter to America.

Wafa speaks powerfully about what America means to her. It manifests itself in little things. She leaves her house at 5 am and makes her way to Starbucks to have her coffee without fearing that someone might see her and accuse her of immoral behavior. To her, America means saying "good morning" to her neighbor and chatting with him for a few moments without being accused of having spent the night with him. America, for this courageous woman, means that her daughter can come home and tell her that she had lunch with her boyfriend without being beaten or accused of having impugned the family honor.

It is clear throughout A God Who Hates that Wafa Sultan was always a very independent thinker, even though there were times in her life when she did not immediately allow herself to go to the next step to which her thinking was leading her. She writes lovingly about her husband, who was very supportive of her. He was an open-minded thinker -- initially more so than was Wafa herself. But she recounts in the book certain momentous events that jarred her thinking, such as in 1979 when Muslims screaming "Allahu akbar" murdered one of her professors, the ophthalmology lecturer Dr. Yusef Al-Yusef, whom she respected and admired. Wafa witnessed the murder - and at that exact moment started to question the nature of the Islamic faith.

"But I was afraid," she explained when I interviewed her recently, "to express my feelings. I was afraid to express my thoughts, because under Islamic sharia, a Muslim who dares to leave Islam or dares to convert to any other religion is to be killed. And every Muslim has the right to kill someone who has left Islam without being asked a question. This is the Islamic law. Once you were born as a Muslim, you're not allowed to leave it. This is simply the Islamic law, and it seems to me it's very hard to convince Americans that this is the way it is."

The recent Rifqa Bary apostasy case shows how right Wafa is about that, and how urgent her message is. Rifqa Bary is the teenage girl, a Muslim in Ohio, who left Islam four years ago and converted to Christianity. When her father found out about her conversion, she fled from her home in fear for her life. She said she ran away to Florida because she wanted to get as far away as she could -- because not only her family but the mosque and the community in Ohio is very devout, and as an apostate she is in danger. But now she has been returned to Ohio, in large part because American authorities don't know anything about Islamic apostasy law....

Read it all.

A God Who Hates: The Courageous Woman Who Inflamed the Muslim World Speaks Out Against the Evils of Islam.
By Wafa Sultan
St. Martin’s Press, 2009
256 pages

Wafa Sultan’s seminal moment was when she took on an Islamic cleric on Al-Jazeera. The clip went viral on Youtube, and it really was a defining moment in the clash of civilizations. Here was a woman, basically considered “property” in the Muslim world and expected to do what she was told, turning around after she had been interrupted numerous times, and saying in effect, “Quiet, it’s my turn.”

Now comes her new book, A God Who Hates, which will undoubtedly prove to be a key resource in the resistance to jihad and Islamization. In it, the brilliant psychiatrist from Syria, now an American citizen, tells her own story.

It is the story of a Muslim woman who grew up in a country where she was indoctrinated in Islamic ideology. So her perspective is very important in terms of establishing the credibility of scholars like Robert Spencer and Dr. Andrew Bostom. But what makes this book great, apart from its breathtaking honesty and truth and the clarity and urgency of its warning, is that it is also a beautiful love letter to America.

Wafa speaks powerfully about what America means to her. It manifests itself in little things. She leaves her house at 5 am and makes her way to Starbucks to have her coffee without fearing that someone might see her and accuse her of immoral behavior. To her, America means saying “good morning” to her neighbor and chatting with him for a few moments without being accused of having spent the night with him. America, for this courageous woman, means that her daughter can come home and tell her that she had lunch with her boyfriend without being beaten or accused of having impugned the family honor.

It is clear throughout A God Who Hates that Wafa Sultan was always a very independent thinker, even though there were times in her life when she did not immediately allow herself to go to the next step to which her thinking was leading her. She writes lovingly about her husband, who was very supportive of her. He was an open-minded thinker — initially more so than was Wafa herself. But she recounts in the book certain momentous events that jarred her thinking, such as in 1979 when Muslims screaming “Allahu akbar” murdered one of her professors, the ophthalmology lecturer Dr. Yusef Al-Yusef, whom she respected and admired. Wafa witnessed the murder – and at that exact moment started to question the nature of the Islamic faith.

“But I was afraid,” she explained when I interviewed her recently, “to express my feelings. I was afraid to express my thoughts, because under Islamic sharia, a Muslim who dares to leave Islam or dares to convert to any other religion is to be killed. And every Muslim has the right to kill someone who has left Islam without being asked a question. This is the Islamic law. Once you were born as a Muslim, you’re not allowed to leave it. This is simply the Islamic law, and it seems to me it’s very hard to convince Americans that this is the way it is.”

The recent Rifqa Bary apostasy case shows how right Wafa is about that, and how urgent her message is. Rifqa Bary is the teenage girl, a Muslim in Ohio, who left Islam four years ago and converted to Christianity. When her father found out about her conversion, she fled from her home in fear for her life. She said she ran away to Florida because she wanted to get as far away as she could — because not only her family but the mosque and the community in Ohio is very devout, and as an apostate she is in danger. But now she has been returned to Ohio, in large part because American authorities don’t know anything about Islamic apostasy law.

If they had read A God Who Hates, Rifqa might be in a safer place today. “This case,” said Wafa, “showed America in a very ugly light, that we will sacrifice a young girl on the altar of political correctness rather than do the right thing.”

A God Who Hates is a devastating book, coming from a most reliable witness. “My book,” Wafa told me, “is about my personal life. In my book I lead my readers step by step throughout my life, from A to Z, so they can figure out what has changed me, what has helped me to break free from Islam. It didn’t happen overnight. It took many years and a great deal of pain to reach where I am today. Through my book I am trying to send a message to the West, that Islam is a hateful ideology and it’s very dangerous for Islam to be established in this free country. This is my message to the West.”

Wafa Sultan is trying to get her message to the Muslim world, not just to the West. Hers is a very powerful voice, and one that Islamic supremacists would very much like to silence. As she told me in our interview: “It’s very dangerous to go against Islam. Prior to my book release I was forced to go into hiding, fearing for my safety and for my family’s safety. I received death threats on a daily basis, and I know what they mean by telling me that, I know how bitter they are, I was one of them. I can very much understand the mindset of Muslims.”

Nevertheless, despite the immense risks, A God Who Hates will be translated into Arabic and made available in the Arab-Muslim world. And it is a must read for all free people. This is a book that you not only have to read, but to give to the people in your office. Give it to your daughters, give it to your children. Show them why they should love America, and fight to defend her from the Islamic oppression that Wafa Sultan escaped.

[To order a copy of A God Who Hates, click here.]

Pamela Geller is the founder, editor and publisher of the popular and award-winning weblog AtlasShrugs.com. She has won acclaim for her interviews with internationally renowned figures, including John Bolton, Geert Wilders, Bat Ye’or, Natan Sharansky, and many others, and has broken numerous important stories — notably the questionable sources of some of the financing of the Obama campaign. Her op-eds have been published in The Washington Times, The American Thinker, Israel National News, Frontpage Magazine, Big Government, World Net Daily, and New Media Journal, among other publications. She is the co-author (with Robert Spencer) of The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration’s War on America (forward by Ambassador John Bolton), coming soon from Simon and Schuster.

On Friday afternoon, 27 November 2009, Rifqa Ghazi 'Abdullah Salama, 29, from al-Shati refugee camp west of Gaza City, was killed allegedly "to maintain family honor."

According to police sources in al-Shati, at approximately 13:30 on Friday, 27 November 2009, the woman's brother, two uncles and two cousin strangled her using a wet towel while she was sleeping at home near Hmaid intersection in al-Shati refugee camp. The police initiated an investigation into the murder and arrested the 5 accused persons. Initial investigations indicate that the woman was killed allegedly to "maintain family honor."...

According to PCHR's documentation, the number of people killed allegedly "to maintain family honor" since the beginning of 2009 has amounted to 10 (7 women, two men and a child) in 8 crimes. One of these crimes was committed in the West Bank, whereas the rest of the crimes were committed in the Gaza Strip.

PCHR strongly condemns this latest crime, and:

1. Expresses concern over the recurrence of murders against women in the Occupied Palestinian Territory [sic!] allegedly "to maintain family honor." Such recurrence may be attributed to the relative impunity granted to murderers, who are often sentenced to less than 3 civil years of imprisonment, equivalent to 24 months of effective imprisonment.

2. Calls for suitable deterrent penalties to be applied to "family honor" murders. These murders must be dealt with in the same manner as other crimes of willful killing, taking into consideration international human rights standards. Many murderers use the claim of maintaining family honor as a justification for the crimes they commit in order to benefit from more lenient sentences.

Jimmy Carter: Useful idiot

General George Casey: Hoped the U.S. military wouldn't lose its "diversity" in the wake of the Fort Hood jihad attack

Meredith Heagney: Carrying water for Islamic supremacists in the Rifqa Bary apostasy case

Charles Johnson: CAIR tool, liar, smear artist

Michael Kruse: Another water-carrier for those who would deny Rifqa Bary her religious freedom

Barack Obama: The post-American president

"Italy: Moroccan would-be convert 'hangs himself,'" from AKI, December 3 (thanks to C. Cantoni):

Civitavecchia, 3 Dec. (AKI) - Prosecutors are probing the death of a 22-year-old Moroccan immigrant who wanted to convert from Islam to Catholicism. Said Bouidra was found hanged in the central Italian port city of Civitavecchia outside Rome late Wednesday.

Bouidra's family was reported to have bitterly opposed his decision to convert to Catholicism and to had threatened and beaten him.

Earlier on Wednesday he had tried to drown himself in the sea but had been saved by Italian paramilitary 'Carabinieri' police and port officials, news reports said.

Prosecutors will investigate why he was allowed to discharge himself from a local psychiatric hospital where he was admitted after he tried to drown himself.

They will also look at claims by Bouidra's friends that he had told them members of his family had threatened and savagely beaten him over his planned conversion.

"Said was terrified of his father, who under no circumstances wanted a Christian for a son," said Civitavecchia's local councillor for social services, Chiara Guidoni.

"To get away from the pressure he was facing, he had talked about going to France to join the Foreign Legion," she added.

Bouidra was popular figure in Civitavecchia and was known to members of the city council as he had volunteered for Italy's civil protection agency.

He assisted victims of the devastating 6 April earthquake in the central Abruzzo region.

"He came to the town hall on Monday to ask for help," opposition councillor Vittorio Petrelli was cited as saying.

Last month Bouidra scaled a lighting post at the nearby coastal town of Santa Marinella's football stadium and threatened to throw himself off, the local TeleCivitavecchia TV station reported.